Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them five historic districts with 120 buildings between them. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1940 on, and the census since 1800.
The Calais post office opened in 1816, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, North Calais (1879), Sodom (1893) and Adamant (1905), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Calais is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age lowest.
Vermont towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Vermont town has 147 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Calais’ 706 sits above most of its state (94% of Vermont towns have fewer) while its 121 historic buildings outnumber those of 90% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Calais’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1840 and 1960, then more than doubled.
23 censuses, 1800–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Calais’ Wikipedia page.
Calais’s post office has been open since 1816. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia’s history of Calais.
Colonel Jacob Davis named Calais after the French port city of the same name, during a time of general enthusiasm for things French as a result of France's aid during the American Revolution.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Calais, cut from the printed page as they were published.
will erect a Good Grist-Mill and a. good Saw-Mill within Two years fi-om this date, as near the Middle of said Township of Calais as he conveniently can, shall have one hundred Spanish Milled Dollars and one hundred acres qf Land in said Township.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
will erect a Good Grist-Mill and a good Saw-Mill within Two years from this date, as near the Middle of said Township of Calais as he conveniently can, shall have one hundred Spanish Milled Dollars and one hundred acres of Land in said Township.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The charter closes with the following : Conditions and Reservations, viz. : that each Proprietor in the Township of Calais, aforesaid, his Heirs or Assigns, shall Plant and Cultivate five acres of land, and build an house at least eighteen feet square on the floor, or have one family settled on each respective Right within the term of
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Conditions and Reservations, viz. : that each Proprietor in the Township of Calais, aforesaid, his Heirs or Assigns, shall Plant and Cultivate five acres of land, and build an house at least eighteen feet square on the floor, or have one family settled on each respective Right within the term of three years next after the circumstances of
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereJ. Ward Carver is born here
In the archiveEast calais general store 1908 pc image 1
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Calais.
1940Plainfield sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Calais.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Calais’ page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Calais post office opened in 1816, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Calais is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
5 listings: 1 building, among them the Old West Church (listed 1973, the first), and 5 historic districts with 120 contributing buildings. 121 historic buildings in all.
32% of Calais’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.4 points), against a typical 22% for a Vermont town; the median home was built in 1976.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (7), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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